Scribbled Message and a Number
by Bexish
Summary: This is a compilation of short drabbles and one-shots I've done for Gilmore Girls. Most of them are Literati.
1. Jess

Hello again! This is just a collection of little drabbles I've done over time. A lot of them are Literati-centric because I love them the most but it's a splash of everything. This first one is a little bit of Jess for no particular reason. It does not have a title and I think most of them won't because titles are impossible.

* * *

People always talked about the fast pace of Manhattan, but no one ever pointed out that the entire city was in grayscale. From the dingy white walls of the apartment he shared with his mom to the gray skies of rainy spring days to the thousands of people wearing black every day, New York had a lack of color that Jess had never noticed before.

Even the manhole covers were a dirty pewter, complete with dishwater colored steam leaking through them. In his first 17 years of living in the city, Jess had never paid attention to the steam from the subway or the manholes or the congested, litter filled streets. It had just been the background for his whole life. Now it was almost jarring. For the past six months his life had a very different backdrop.

He'd hated Stars Hollow when he had first got there. It was like walking into a romantic comedy where everything was perfectly picturesque and everyone was proud of how quirky they were, even though in reality they were just weird. It had been nothing short of a miracle that he found someone who wasn't as strange as the rest of them. Rory had been the shred of normalcy in that freakshow of a town.

He had thought it might not be so bad after he'd met Rory. Everyone he went to school with was either a jerk or too boring to bother with, but Rory always seemed to be around. Rory and her Neanderthal boyfriend, anyway. Dean was always lurking in the background, looking for a reason to jump in to protect his precious Rory. That had been annoying. So when Luke had told Jess in no uncertain terms that Rory was going to tutor him, he had agreed without much complaint. Dean wouldn't be there when they studied together.

How short lived that had been. In one night he had gone from being the town pariah to being officially exiled, shipped out on a bus first thing in the morning after a car crash he couldn't have prevented. Well he could have prevented it, he supposed, if he had wanted to splatter an unidentifiable animal all over the street and Rory's car. Instead he had taken his chances swerving, which probably would have gone okay if the car hadn't jumped up on the curb unexpectedly. He'd turned the wheel half an inch too far and now he was back in Manhattan.

Rory had visited him though. She had found him reading in the park. He had only mentioned the park once in passing, but she had known where to look for him. For some reason, that one little thing was enough to give him hope. The day they spent together was nice, but after she left he kept going back to that one fact. She had known where to find him. After a week of thinking about Rory, he made a decision. He knew where to find her, too. If Luke would let him, he was going to go back to Stars Hollow.

Never in a million years did he think he would actually want to go back to Stars Hollow, but Manhattan felt like it had changed while he was gone. He may have been content with the grayness before, but he'd experienced the other side of things while in Stars Hollow. He needed a little color in his life.


	2. Rory

p class="MsoNormal"Also untitled, just a little bit of Rory trying (and failing) not to pine for Jess./p  
hr /  
p class="MsoNormal"Jess was leaning against the Eiffel Tower./p  
p class="MsoNormal"It wasn't really Jess, of course. It hadn't been Jess at the Arc du Triomphe and it hadn't been him at Versailles. Nor had it been him at the Tower of London, Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum or at the Vatican. It hadn't been him sipping coffee at an outdoor café or riding a Vespa next to the canals. Rory didn't know where Jess was for sure, but she knew he wasn't in Europe. They all looked like him, though. Oh, did they all look like him./p  
p class="MsoNormal"This trip to Europe was supposed to be the most amazing experience of her life. Every place they visited was one she had read about dozens of times, picturing herself among the people in stories. She had dreamed about sipping cappuccino in Italy and munching on pastries in France and even heading back to a gross hostel at night, exhausted but exhilarated from her adventures of the day. But every city they visited, every corner they turned she was certain that Jess was just up ahead of her. Whenever she saw a shock of dark hair or a particularly rugged jacket she though that just maybe he was there with her. Never mind the fact that she was thousands of miles away from where she had last seen them and he had no idea where they were. A small part of her thought maybe he would have come up with a way to find her./p  
p class="MsoNormal"She didn't want to spend her whole vacation thinking about Jess. After all, she had told him she wasn't going to pine for him. Rory badly wanted that to be true. She wanted to move on and enjoy this time with her mom before college. Lorelai pretended like she wasn't worried about her daughter, but every now and then Rory could see her mom glancing sideways at her whenever Rory's attention was diverted by another stranger in the crowd. They hadn't discussed Jess at all in their time away, but the situation was definitely present. Rory couldn't stop thinking about him, and it was hard to hide it./p  
p class="MsoNormal"No matter how many times she told herself that she was being ridiculous, she still couldn't help but keep an eye out for him. She was even duped when she saw a woman with a pixie cut from behind. And when she wasn't thinking she was seeing Jess, she was thinking about what it would be like if he was there. Would he be impressed by the Hall of Mirrors or would he think it was gaudy? Would he delight in a basket of greasy fish and chips or would he roll his eyes at the use of vinegar as a condiment? Would he have sat with them in the Clarence Hotel, hoping Bono would show, or would he find better things to do than stalk a rock star? Would he insist on the window seat on the plane, or would he offer to take the dreaded middle?/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Rory knew she would likely never know those things. Jess wasn't in Europe with her now, and she doubted the future would look much better for them. Still, she carried a part of him with her around Europe. Rory was trying not to pine for him, but she had a feeling that Jess would be a part of her for a long time./p 


	3. Lorelai and Jess

I think this probably should have happened in the show but it didn't so I decided to pretend it did. Jess apologizes to Lorelai.

* * *

It was 1 a.m. and Lorelai couldn't sleep. Rory was fast asleep and she could hear Chris snoring upstairs, but she had too many thoughts running through her mind to sleep. Lorelai knew that Rory was safe and relatively unharmed, but Lorelai couldn't stop thinking about the events of that night. Since she hadn't been there, she can only imagine what the car crash must have been like. She knew she was probably picturing it as much worse than it was, but she couldn't help it. When you hear the term car crash, you picture flaming wreckage instead of a little fender bender.

Rory hadn't actually said car crash herself. She had called it an accident. But Lorelai could tell a euphemism when she heard one. If Rory had been driving, maybe it would have been an accident. Jess Mariano was the type of kid who crashed cars, though. Since arriving in Stars Hollow all he had done was leave a wake of destruction in his path. If Luke had any sense at all, he would ship his nephew's delinquent ass back to New York as soon as a bus left Stars Hollow.

She did feel bad about screaming at Luke in the town square. Sort of. Lorelai had meant everything that she had said, though. Having his nephew crash with him for a few months was hardly the same as actually raising a child. Luke could get mad all he wanted, but he didn't understand what Lorelai had gone through that night. He had said Jess was missing and he had to look for him, but there weren't too many places Jess could hide in Stars Hollow. Especially without a car. It was almost hilarious that Luke could try to compare that to having to pick up a child from the hospital.

Luke didn't have to have the same phone conversation she did, either. Sure, he had probably called Jess' mom but what had he said? "Hey, your kid crashed a car tonight and sent his friend to the hospital"? Lorelai had called Christopher while Rory was in getting an x-ray and it was one of the hardest calls she'd had to make in her life. She and Chris weren't always on the best of terms anyway, and having to tell him that their daughter was in the hospital had put a horrible sinking feeling in her stomach that hadn't gone away until Chris showed up at their door at midnight. Even then, she still felt on edge.

Chris had gone to bed shortly after checking on Rory to make sure she was truly okay, but Lorelai hadn't been able to relax. She just tossed and turned on the couch with Brady Bunch reruns playing in the background on low. She kept listening for sounds from Rory's room, but other than the TV playing the house was quiet. So when she heard a faint knock on the door she nearly jumped out of her skin.

Her first thought was that it was the police. It was illogical, hours after a fairly minor crash, but that was what Lorelai thought anyway. She expected to open up the door to see a uniformed officer who would inform her that… Well, she didn't know what. Maybe that Jess had stolen the remains of Rory's car and headed for the Canadian border or something. What she didn't expect to see when she opened the door was the would-be criminal himself.

"Jess," Lorelai said flatly, crossing her arms. "What the hell are you doing here?"

To his credit, Jess looked nervous. He was tapping his foot quickly and wouldn't meet her eyes, which gave Lorelai some satisfaction. He should have been nervous to be there. "I just came to say I'm sorry," he mumbled at the ground.

"Well, Rory's asleep," Lorelai said. "The pain meds the doctor gave her for her broken arm really knocked her out. Send her a letter. Although I'm the one who usually checks the mail around here, so don't be surprised if you don't get a response." She started to shut the door, but Jess took a step forward.

"I came to say I'm sorry to you," he said more clearly, looking Lorelai in the eye this time. He seemed extremely uncomfortable doing it, but Lorelai could tell that he seemed genuine. "I was the one that said we should leave the diner to go get ice cream. Rory wanted to stay and study. I was only driving so she could quiz me on stuff on the way there."

That was more words than Lorelai had ever heard Jess say at once. "You were at a diner. You couldn't have stayed and ate ice cream there?" While she knew it was a big step for Jess to actually apologize for doing something wrong, she certainly wasn't ready to let him off the hook.

His next words were so quiet that they almost lost in the chilly night air. "I wanted cones."

In that moment, it was impossible for Lorelai to overlook one important fact. Jess was a child. He might have been a James Dean wannabe on the fast track to a criminal record, but he was still a kid. Just like Rory, for all her beyond-her-years maturity, was still a kid. A kid who could be talked into a late night ice cream run, because her friend wanted ice cream cones and a break from studying.

"Rory said you swerved because there was an animal," Lorelai said after a pause. She leaned against the door frame, her arms still crossed. "You weren't just trying to play The Fast and the Furious?"

"I thought it might've been a cat," Jess said. "It was probably just a raccoon or something, but I couldn't tell and I didn't want to run over someone's pet in the middle of the street." Seemingly uncomfortable with Lorelai's silence, he added, "You know, Dean didn't do a great job with the power steering in that thing. It shouldn't have jumped the curb because I turned the wheel a little harder than usual."

Lorelai held up a finger. "Watch it," she said. "You were doing a pretty good job until you blamed it on Dean."

Jess' usual combativeness flared up. "I wasn't blaming it on Dean," he said defensively. He must have seen the warning look in Lorelai's eyes, because he let out a breath. "Look, I just came to say I'm sorry. Luke's sending me back to New York in the morning, so I probably wasn't gonna get another chance. Don't worry, you'll never see me again."

Lorelai's first reaction was to be overjoyed. Luke sending Jess back was the best thing that could have come out of this situation. Now their lives could go back to normal. Lorelai would probably have to find a new place to get coffee in the mornings but other than that, life could go on.

Until she thought about Rory. Like it or not, Rory and Jess were friends. If Lorelai was Rory's age, she probably would have been enchanted by someone like Jess, too. As a teen, she had been a lot more like Jess than Rory.

Maybe it the knowledge that Jess was leaving that made her feel generous. "I was in a car accident when I was about your age," Lorelai said. "My boyfriend got a new car for his birthday and we took it out for a ride. We were fighting over the radio when he went right over the rumble strips and sideswiped the car against the guardrail at 70 miles an hour. Dented the front of the car, ruined the paint job on the side. We were stuck taking the bus for six months after that."

"Wow, rough life," Jess said sarcastically. Normally it would make Lorelai want to shut the door in his smug little face, but he had a point. Jess had gone to get ice cream and avoided hitting an animal while Lorelai and Chris had gone out to test his Porsche on the highway just because they could. As far as mistakes went, Lorelai's had been far stupider. And what had her punishment been? A brief lecture from Emily and Richard and a seat on the bus. Jess was being sent back to live with his mom.

Lorelai didn't know anything about Jess' mom, but if she had sent Jess to live here in the first place Lorelai kind of doubted that she wanted to take him back so soon. It seemed a bit selfish to want Jess gone just because it would make her life easier. "You should get home," Lorelai said. "Luke's not going to be happy if he wakes up and sees that you're gone."

"Nah, he sleeps like he's dead," Jess said. Even so, he shoved his hands in his pockets and backed up from the door. "Thanks for answering the door," he said, sounding as sincere as he probably ever had in his life.

"Thanks for apologizing," Lorelai said in equal measure. Despite not being Jess' biggest fan, she felt a lot more at peace than she had all night. After lying back down on the couch, she fell asleep almost immediately.

Having been excused from school for the day, Rory and Lorelai went to Luke's for lunch the next day. "Maybe you should get a soup or a salad," Lorelai said as they walked up to the diner. "Something you could eat one-handed."

"I can still lift my arm to my mouth," Rory pointed out. "And a salad? I didn't sustain a head injury, you know."

"Hey, I'm just trying to help you in this dark time," Lorelai said, holding the door open for Rory. "I didn't want you to overexert yourself with a double cheeseburger."

"I can pick up a burger just fine," Rory said, pulling out her chair with two hands as if to demonstrate that she was still perfectly capable of using her hand.

"Well, I'm going to get your coffee for you anyway so you can save your energy for the food," Lorelai said, walking up to the counter. She was only slightly surprised to see Jess materialize behind the cash register a minute later. "You're still here," Lorelai said.

Jess nodded, turning around to get the pot of coffee. "I'm still here," he agreed. "I came downstairs this morning with my stuff and Luke told me to put an apron on and get to work."

"You're not wearing an apron," Lorelai noted.

"I assumed it was just a saying," Jess said. He went to hand her two cups of coffee and hesitated. "Whatever you said to Luke…"

Lorelai cut him off. "Why don't you go take that to Rory?" she said, catching Luke's eye in the kitchen. After an initial look of irritation, he nodded at her. He hadn't been happy when Lorelai showed up as soon as he opened the diner that morning and Lorelai had thought he was going to turn her away. Luckily for her, he had listened to what she had to say. Had it been a horrible idea to suggest he let Jess stay in Stars Hollow? Possibly. But when she saw the look on Rory's face as Jess went to their table, she thought she had made the right choice. Lorelai knew whatever happened next could potentially be a disaster, but she knew Jess probably wasn't a bad kid. If he was, he wouldn't have apologized. Still, she had her eye on him.


	4. Lorelai and Emily

Not Literati, this takes place after Lorelai bails out the window on a the world's most boring man in 1x16. Because I love Emily interacting with Lorelai.

* * *

"Why on earth would you sneak out the window in the middle of dinner?" Emily was more incensed than Lorelai had seen her since three weeks ago when the ice bucket leaked and left a ring on the drink cart. At least that ire hadn't been aimed at Lorelai. Now it was all coming her way. Her mother was probably frothing at the mouth, waiting for an explanation.

"It was after dinner," Lorelai pointed out. "And I left because you were trying to make me have after dinner drinks with the most boring man alive." Chase was probably a catch to some woman out there, but Lorelai had nearly nodded off during dinner when he droned on and on about actuarials and predicting people's deaths. Only the over the top expectant looks from Emily had kept her awake.

Emily sighed. "Chase is a lovely man! Now that he's back in the area I thought the two of you would enjoy each other's company. And he's done _very_ well for himself," she added, as if that somehow canceled out the fact that he was about as interesting as the crumbs in the bottom of Lorelai's toaster.

"Well, maybe he can use some of his self-made fortune to buy a better personality," Lorelai suggested, twirling the phone cord around her index finger. "Mother, I'm at work. Is this perhaps something that can wait until later? Or at dinner on Friday?" At least at dinner she would have Rory as a buffer, although Rory's presence had never stopped Emily from criticizing her before.

Emily didn't seem to hear Lorelai's suggestion of postponing the conversation. "He's proud of his accomplishments, Lorelai. There's hardly anything wrong with that." Thankfully, she did not repeat her previous comments about his "good breeding". Every time she heard the phrase she thought about horses. She bet Chase was the kind of guy who would buy his kids a horse, since he adored children and all.

"No, but it would be a lot more tolerable if his accomplishments were interesting," Lorelai said. She had started doodling on an Independence Inn notepad, boxing in the logo with a little vine.

"I suppose these days you'd rather hear about how to make a pot of coffee or refill ketchup bottles," Emily scoffed.

"Mother, I don't think you've ever owned a ketchup bottle," Lorelai said. Then she stopped doodling and actually stared at the phone. "Are you talking about Luke? I have told you many times that Luke and I are—"

"Just friends, I know," Emily finished for her with a sigh. "You say that quite often, you know."

"Well, I wouldn't have to if you would stop reading into things that aren't there," Lorelai pointed out. She supposed she should be glad that Emily had moved on from her disapproval of Lorelai dating Max, but Emily was still being annoying.

"Am I?" Emily asked, sounding a bit too coy for Lorelai's liking. "It seems to me that you would have been a bit more interested in Chase if you weren't thinking about someone else instead."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Rats, someone needs my help, Mom," she said to the empty lobby. "I guess we'll just have to finish this conversation later when I'm not working." Lorelai hoped that her mom would forget all about it by Friday's dinner, but she knew Emily never forgot anything.

"If you insist," Emily said, probably not believing for a second that Lorelai actually had to go. "Oh, and I gave Chase your home number, since I know you don't like getting phone calls at work. I'll see you girls on Friday!"

Emily hung up before Lorelai could protest. She was good. Lorelai hung up the phone in defeat, making a mental note to look into how to change her phone number.


	5. Rory and Jess

An AU in which Rory meets Jess because he's the police officer who arrests her when she steals the yacht.

* * *

Rory hadn't realized quite how loud bullhorns were, but the coast guard's words were still reverberating in her ears when they back on solid ground. Words like theft and stop and arrest.

She hadn't thought they would get caught. It was stupid, but at no point on their little joyride had she been worried about the cops finding out. She really thought they could take the boat out for a little trip and put it back before anyone noticed. She hadn't counted on the owners showing up at the dock for a romantic moonlight jaunt, only to find their boat missing. So the coast guard had come to take them back to the cops on the shore.

Rory didn't quite believe she was being arrested, even as a cop snapped a pair of heavy handcuffs around her wrist. He cuffed her hands in front of her, even though on TV it was always from behind. Maybe he trusted her to comply. And she would, because she was too scared to do anything else.

"Will someone call my mom?" Rory asked as she sat in the back of the police cruiser. She kept oscillating between hoping they would and hoping they would call literally anyone else in the world.

"You're an adult. You can call whoever you want to bail you out," the police officer said.

Duh. Rory was no longer a child. She could make her own decisions. Like whether or not to steal a boat. "Is it going to be a lot of money?" A small part of her wondered if Paris would float her the bail money if she promised to pay her back. She wasn't sure if that would be better or worse than Lorelai paying it.

Rory saw the cop shrug through the metal screen separating the car. "Shouldn't be too much," he said. "I didn't think people like you and your boyfriend had to worry about that, though. It seems like it's always the bored rich kids who pull stuff like this."

"Well, I can hardly bail myself out even if I was," Rory said, annoyed that this cop was just shoving her into the same category as all the other lawbreakers he saw. Maybe she was, though. Stealing the boat had been her idea, after all. She could hardly say she was better than everyone else this guy arrested. "We're not all the same, you know."

"You're not the first kid around here to steal a boat, Lorelai Gilmore," he said.

Rory flinched. "It's Rory," she said. "What's your name, anyway?" She didn't love that he knew who she was and apparently had her pegged as a bored rich girl but she didn't even know his name.

"Officer Mariano."

That was better. "This isn't the kind of thing I usually do, you know," Rory said. "I was just really upset tonight and I wanted to get away from some things that were going on. And Logan should be in just as much trouble as I am. He didn't argue with me, and he was the one who hotwired the control panel." It probably wasn't smart to throw Logan under the bus like that, but it just came out.

"What do you usually do when you're not out stealing boats, then?" Officer Mariano asked. Rory wasn't a fan of his snarky tone. She didn't like being talked down to.

"I go to Yale," Rory said. "I'm on the paper staff and I just finished an internship at the Hartford Eagle Gazette." Her somewhat self-congratulatory tone was betrayed by the lump that formed in her throat when she mentioned the internship. After what Mitchum had said, it clearly wasn't the accomplishment she wanted it to sound like.

"So what's a smart girl like you doing stealing boats?"

Rory sighed. "I told you, I was upset about something that happened earlier. I just wanted to take off for a while." She rested her head against the window, suddenly feeling very tired. The excitement of the evening had worn off and now she just wanted to go home. She had a feeling she still had a long night ahead of her, though.

"Is it that boyfriend of yours?" Officer Mariano asked. "I can talk to him when we get to the station."

"No, it was his dad," Rory said. Noticing the officer looking at her in the rearview mirror, she quickly clarified. "He said he didn't think I would be good as a journalist, which is the only thing I've ever wanted to be in my entire life."

"Besides a boat thief?"

"I thought cops were supposed to be a little more professional," Rory fumed. "What would you do? If you wanted to be a police officer your whole life and someone told you that you wouldn't be good at it?"

Officer Mariano met her eyes in the rearview mirror. "Do it anyway," he said. "And I did. My life growing up was crap. But I finished high school and joined the academy and showed all of those people who thought I would be nothing that I could be successful."

"What if everyone already expects me to be successful?" Rory asked, thinking of her mom and grandparents who had always been convinced that she could do no wrong.

"Then you've got a better life than most people who end up back there," Officer Mariano said matter-of-factly.

Rory knew that she did have a good life and that she was lucky to have such a solid support system, but Mitchum's words still stung. It was as if Meryl Streep had told her she wouldn't make a good actress. "This guy's a pretty big deal in the industry," she said. "I think he would know better than anyone whether or not I would be successful."

"Not you? Why does this guy get to tell you whether or not you'll be successful?"

"Because everyone in journalism would feel lucky if they could work for him," Rory said. "He's the guy. If he says I can't do it, then maybe I can't do it."

Officer Mariano flipped on his blinker and pulled into the parking lot of the police station. The building looked drab and cold, which was pretty much exactly what Rory had expected. "Or maybe you could tell him to fuck off," he said, shutting off the car. It was crass, but Rory appreciated the sentiment. She went to open her door and realized it was locked from the inside. Of course it was. She was a criminal. Officer Mariano walked around and opened the door for her, which was somehow more embarrassing than being handcuffed was. "If he thinks you can't do what you're doing, then show him you can," Officer Mariano continued. "And if you really want to show him, do even more than that." As he led her inside, he gave her an appraising look. "It'll only work if you do it for you, though. If you're just doing it to show him that he's wrong it's not going to work out how you want it to."

"You're smart," Rory said grudgingly as they walked inside. The building smelled like stale coffee. "I guess that's why you're a cop and I'm probably about to be led to a cell."

"You'll go through processing first," Officer Mariano said. "But I bet you're smart too. Try not to let this throw you off too much."

With that, he handed her off to another officer who took all the things she had with her, along with her fingerprinting her. Rory barely noticed what he was doing. She was just worried about what she was going to say when she was able to call her mom and wondering whether or not she really could do more.


	6. Rory and Logan

This is short but I like it a lot. If you like Logan you may not feel the same way because Rory yells at him.

* * *

"Hey, Ace. What's the big story today?"

Rory didn't even look up from her computer. She was halfway through her article on illegal music downloading (it might have been a snooze, but she had all the research already) and didn't intend to stop to talk to Logan.

Not that it bothered him. He just peered over her shoulder, looking at her computer screen. "Illegal downloading. Interesting stuff. You know, I just bought a few CDs last week. Feel free to interview me if you want some perspective from the other side."

"I don't," Rory said, typing a little more loudly. The hint wasn't obvious enough, though, because Logan still lingered.

"That's a little one-sided, don't you think? I just thought you would appreciate a well-rounded story." He leaned against her desk and crossed his arms. "I'm sure you've got your sources, though. I was going to go to the coffee cart. You want anything?"

"Just you to go away," Rory said. She still didn't look up at him. She was actually kind of mad at herself that she was giving him any attention at all. The silent treatment was difficult to keep up when the other person wouldn't stop talking though. Rory's capabilities to ignore someone weren't endless.

Logan wasn't fazed. In fact, when Rory snuck what she hoped was a subtle look at him, he looked kind of amused. He always looked amused, though. It was irritating. Like life was so easy and fun that everything was just entertainment to him. Everything was a game and in his mind, everyone else was playing. "Tell you what, you walk me to the coffee cart and I'll let you get back to your story," he said.

"Nope," Rory said.

"You can get anything you want, my treat," Logan said. "Coffee? Latte? Pastry?"

That did it for Rory. She quickly saved her story and got up from her desk, ready to end this once and for all. "Can I talk to you in the hall?"

"Whatever you say," Logan said easily, following her out into the hallway.

Luckily there weren't too many people around. "Why won't you leave me alone?" Rory exploded. "Didn't you have enough fun with that stunt you pulled in my class last week?"

"Come on, it was just a prank," Logan insisted. "And I told you, I can get you time with your professor."

"I don't want your help; I want you to go away!" Rory said. "And you know what, that wasn't a prank. It was embarrassing and mean-spirited."

Logan laughed. "Come on, mean spirited? It was just a joke. Something funny. And hey, your mini-me loved it."

"It wasn't funny, and if you knew me at all you would have known I wouldn't like it," Rory said. "But you don't, because you didn't stop for even a second to think that hey, maybe I wouldn't like being the center of attention in the middle of class. You made me look like a fool."

"That was like a week ago. I bet a dozen people have done a dozen dumber things since then that people are talking about," Logan said. "Nobody even remembers."

"I do," Rory said. "But apparently that doesn't matter to you. Is this some kind of game you're playing? Picking on me and trying to wear me down until I like you or something? Because I don't like you," Rory said. "I thought I made my feelings perfectly clear last week. I think you're an ass, and I want you to leave me alone."

Instead of looking apologetic, Logan actually had the nerve to look insulted. "You came to the Life and Death Brigade thing," he said. "You dressed up, you jumped off the tower. Nothing you did was saying that you didn't like me."

"I was there covering it for the paper! I thought I had found a good story. And I only jumped off that tower because you practically goaded me into it."

"I did not goad you!"

"You absolutely did," Rory said. "All that stuff about how all the good journalists participate and how my life is boring and small and I needed to do something fun? Ring a bell?"

"Hey, I did not say boring and small," Logan said. "You're putting words in my mouth."

Rory shrugged. "You definitely implied it. It might seem crazy to you, but I actually like my life. I don't need to get drunk and jump off things or pull pranks in other people's classes to have fun. And you obviously do."

"You think that's all I do?" Logan asked with a snort. "Do you want to hear about what my life is really like?"

"No, I don't," Rory said, exasperated. "I want you to leave me alone. That's the first thing I said. I am not interested in you and I don't want to be your friend, no matter how often you try to get me to change my mind. So I'm going to go back in there and finish my story, and I don't want you to bother me while I'm working on it."

Logan still looked irritated. "Your choice," he said. "I was just trying to get you to lighten up a little and try new things."

"Well, you didn't ask if I wanted that," Rory said simply. "If you had, you would have known that I don't."

That was the end of the conversation for her. She was simply out of things to say, and she didn't really care about what Logan had to say. She just wanted to finish her story, eat some dinner and go back to her dorm. Maybe she would ask Paris if she wanted to watch a movie and order in some dessert. Something low-key. Her idea of fun.


	7. Rory and Jess 2

A very short blurb about how Rory spends her 31st birthday.

* * *

"Jess, stop it!" Rory said, giggling like she was a teenager then. Although she hadn't been the type of kid to do a whole lot of giggling. Even when she was supposed to be a carefree teen, her life hadn't been as much fun as it was now. It only took 31 years to get to that point.

From across the table, Jess waved a chicken wing at her. "Hey, I'm offering it to you," he said. "It's a birthday present."

"I've got my own, and you're going to get sauce all over my dress. And anyway, the play was my birthday present." In her black cocktail dress with a playbill from a new show in her purse, she felt like the luckiest girl in the world. Even though a 31st birthday wasn't exactly a milestone, Jess had surprised her with tickets to a play that she had heard good things about. Getting all dressed up and going to the theater felt exactly like the kind of a thing a mature 31 year old woman should be doing.

After the play ended though, they were starving. Despite being overly dressed for the dive bar they had ended up at, Rory had been dying for some chicken wings. It hadn't taken much convincing to get Jess to agree. A giant pile of barbecue sauce-slathered wings was the perfect late night snack. Rory hadn't countered on Jess threatening her with them, though.

"Come on, I'm trying to share," Jess said. "This one's got extra sauce on it, just for you." With that, he leaned over the table and held it right in front of her face. She tried to squirm away, but Jess poked her in the cheek with the wing. "Oops."

"That was on purpose," Rory said, shaking her head. "I'd watch out if I were you. I'm the birthday girl, so if I end up doing something to you or your wings you are not allowed to retaliate."

"Your birthday was yesterd—"

Rory shushed him. "Nope. As long as we're celebrating my birthday, it still counts as my birthday." She reached across to his plate and snagged one of his wings. "You should know that by now. My mom and I take birthdays very seriously."

Jess nodded solemnly, copying her tone. "Very seriously. What time's the party in Stars Hollow tomorrow?"

"It's not a party," Rory said, like that was a ridiculous idea. "It's just dinner with Mom and Luke and my grandparents and Lane and Zach and Sookie and Jackson and Liz and TJ."

"Right, not a party at all," Jess said. He obviously thought Rory was crazy, but she was used to it. "There's going to be beer, right?"

"Lots of beer," Rory promised, trying to stifle a yawn. "Do you want to take the rest of the food home? I think the Friday portion of my birthday is going to come to a very abrupt end if we sit here any longer and I would prefer to fall asleep at home and not in a bar."

Jess waved their waiter over for their check. "Now we've got a snack for the car ride to Stars Hollow," he said as he boxed up the rest of wings.

"No! You're going to get sauce all over my steering wheel," Rory complained. She shook her head dramatically. "This is why we can't have nice things. They'll just end up covered in barbecue sauce."

"We don't have nice things," Jess pointed out. "You spent all of our nice things money on books at that sale at the Strand last week."

Rory pulled her jacket around her shoulders and took the wings from Jess. "How could I not?" she asked. Outside, the October night was chilly but Rory hardly noticed. She had a great boyfriend, a wonderful family waiting for her tomorrow and chicken wings. Her night had been perfect.


	8. Rory and Jess 3

A one-shot a bit longer than the other ones, previously posted as "Even If You Don't, Say You Do".

* * *

It was right there on Luke's fridge. Durfee Hall, suite five. Jess didn't know why Luke had Rory's address on his fridge, but after what happened when he was in town a few months ago it was too much to ignore. The scribbled note seemed like some sort of sign.

Okay, so Jess didn't believe in signs. But he did believe in opportunities, and this was a big one staring him right in the face. Luke had mentioned offhandedly that Rory was too busy packing up her dorm to come to town for the night. If she was busy packing, she would be at home.

After saying goodbye to his mom and Luke, Jess jumped on the highway in the opposite direction of New York and followed the signs to New Haven. He had no idea what he was going to say to Rory when he saw her, but he knew he had to say something.

At first he had thought he'd gotten everything off his chest at the Firelight Festival, but instead it had been nagging at him for months. Jess has spent the better part of a year mulling over Rory's words from their last phone conversation. _I think I may have loved you._ He had thought that if he just worked up the nerve to return the sentiment, everything would work itself out.

Why that had made sense at the time, he didn't know. Instead of magically closing the book on their relationship, it had opened everything up again. After he drove away from her (a stupid, panicked move that he wished he could take back) he had spent weeks wondering if he would hear from her. When she didn't, he tried to let it go.

It had worked until he got back to Stars Hollow. Even though he knew Rory wasn't in town, he found herself constantly looking for her. Every tall brunette he caught a glimpse of made him do a double-take. His mom's wedding had been a somewhat welcome distraction, but then he had found her address and couldn't get his mind off of it. She was so close.

Much like the rest of campus, Rory's dorm room was dark and empty when he got to Yale. Hoping she was coming back soon, he found a bench near her building and waited. It crossed his mind that she might have already headed back to Stars Hollow. They could have driven right past each other on the highway and not have even known it.

The minutes ticked by slowly. After half an hour, Jess wondered if he should just give up and head back to New York. _Ten more minutes,_ he decided. If he didn't see her in the next ten minutes, he would just have to accept that he had missed his chance. He didn't have Rory's phone number and she didn't have his, so if he didn't see her then he didn't know if he would again.

After seven minutes, he heard footsteps on the pavement. A few seconds later voices came into earshot. He would recognize Rory's voice anywhere, but he also recognized the other voice. Dean. Sure enough, when they rounded a corner it was Rory and Dean. They weren't holding hands or anything outwardly romantic, but they were laughing.

Seeing Rory look happy with Dean took Jess back to when he first arrived in Stars Hollow. Back then everyone had thought she and Dean were the perfect couple, and Jess felt like the only person who realized that Dean just wasn't right for her. For a year he saw Rory and Dean together, even as it became more and more obvious that Dean had nothing to offer her. And now he was back.

Jess still didn't know what he wanted to say to Rory, but Dean being there made him feel on edge. He had to do something, anything, to show her that he was serious about how he felt about her. Maybe she wasn't with Dean, but Jess didn't even want that to be a possibility. He didn't want her to choose Dean over him again.

He watched the two of them walk into Rory's building and only waited a second before following behind them. It felt like his window of opportunity was slamming shut as they walked out of view, but when he got into the building they were still standing in the hallway.

Rory and Dean's conversation seemed serious, but Rory's expression changed when she saw Jess standing behind Dean. "What are you doing here?" she asked, looking guarded. Dean looked over at Jess and took a step closer to Rory, like he thought he was going to have to protect her.

"I need to talk to you," he said, moving closer to her. Rory took a step back from him and gave Dean an uncertain look.

"What are you doing here, Jess?" Dean asked, probably trying to sound intimidating.

Jess fought the urge to roll his eyes and turned away from him. "I just need to talk to you," he repeated to Rory.

He could tell Rory was about to agree, but Dean looked like he wanted to call the police instead. "Jess…" she said, looking between him and Dean.

"Please, Rory," he added. "I just need to talk to you." Please must have been the magic word, because he saw Rory soften. Of course, it wasn't often that he practically begged for the opportunity to talk to her. She must have known something was going on.

"Go home," she said to Dean, not unkindly. "It's fine."

Dean shook his head. "No way," he said. He looked down at Jess like he was a particularly vicious dog. Jess had always hated how tall Dean was. He was always looking down at everybody. He couldn't help being tall, but Jess always felt like Dean thought he was better than everyone else because of it.

"Really, it's okay. You should go home." Dean looked like he wanted to protest, but with a final scowl at Jess he turned and left. Rory still didn't look happy, though. "Why are you here?" she asked Jess. "And why won't you just leave me alone? Didn't you cause enough trouble last time you were in town?"

"I just wanted to see you. To talk to you," Jess said again. "I just…" He trailed off, still not sure what he should say next. He felt more nervous than he ever had in his life, and he hated it. He usually just took things as they came and didn't go out of his way to connect with people. His heart was beating uncomfortably fast.

Rory didn't seem impressed. She unlocked her door and walked inside. Since she didn't slam the door shut in Jess' face, he followed her. "About what? What do you want, Jess?" Rory sounded exhausted, like even being around Jess was draining. He felt like he was losing her.

"Come with me," he said, before he could think it through. "Come back to New York with me." Jess had a crappy job and lived in a horrible apartment with three other guys, but that didn't matter. In that moment, he felt like the two of them could make things work. He hadn't meant to ask her to come with him, but it felt so right once he said it. It was what he'd wanted all along.

Rory stood in stunned silence for a moment. "What?" she asked finally, looking at Jess like he was fresh out of an insane asylum.

"We can go to New York," Jess continued. "You've already got all your things packed. It's perfect timing. We can live and work in the city and be together, really be together." He was talking fast, afraid she would say no if he stopped talking. "I know things didn't work out before, but they will this time. I'm different now. We're different now. It'll work, Rory. I promise it will."

Even as he was talking, Rory was starting to shake her head. "No," she said, her voice shaking. "No, Jess. I have school and my mom and a million other things."

"Don't worry about them," Jess pleaded. "We can visit Stars Hollow all the time. You can take classes in New York. Come on, Rory. Don't just say no." If she said no, it would be a long and lonely drive back to the city. Since he'd ran off to California he had been thinking of ways he could make things up to Rory and it was becoming abundantly clear that he had no idea how to do that. But he still had to try. This felt like his last shot.

"No," Rory said again. "No, no, no. I can't go with you."

"Don't say you can't," Jess said, reaching out to grab her hand. She pulled it away from him and sat down on a box on the opposite side of the room. "You can, Rory. You can do anything you want. So don't just say that you can't if you're scared about how things will work. They will work. You can count on me." God, he hoped that was true.

Even in the dim room, Rory's eyes flashed with anger. "I'm not scared," she said, a hard edge in her voice.

Jess could sense that he had gone too far. "Please, don't say no," he said. He could hear his voice breaking with emotion, but he didn't care. Looking at Rory, he could tell that he was about to lose the only thing that he'd ever really cared about and he would say anything to stop that from happening. "Don't say no unless you really don't want to be with me."

Rory didn't even hesitate. "No," she said vehemently, her voice echoing slightly in the empty room. She looked deadly serious about it, and Jess knew that was going to be her final answer.

With nothing left to say, he walked out of Rory's room and pushed open the door to her building. Outside the campus was still the same, but it felt like something had shifted. The night air felt hollow, like the oxygen had been sucked out of it. He walked away from Rory's building quickly, not eager to hang around a place where he wasn't welcome.

He almost ran straight into Dean when he turned the corner of the building. He was just going to walk right past him, but Dean had other ideas. "So, what did you and Rory talk about?" he asked. Jess could tell he was trying to sound menacing, but he just couldn't take Dean seriously anymore.

"Nothing," Jess said. "Didn't she tell you to go home? What are you still hanging around here for?" It was just like Dean to try to act like the big strong protector. He was probably going to go bursting into Rory's dorm room to console her any second. Jess didn't want to see it. He pushed past Dean without waiting for an answer.

"Where you going, Jess?" Dean called. "Did Rory finally tell you to leave her alone?"

Jess just pulled up the collar of his jacket and kept walking. He could have said something back or just flipped him off, but it didn't seem worth the energy. Rory hadn't specifically told him to leave her alone, but she'd certainly meant it. And now Dean could be the hero, the one who had warned her against talking to him. He would tell Rory he knew that Jess was trouble and she would agree with him, because why would she stick up for him? He was just the crazy ex-boyfriend who had showed up at her dorm and told her to run away with him.

She probably wasn't even surprised. Jess knew fuck all about relationships and had proved it time and time again. For Rory, this was probably just another incident in a series of bad decisions from Jess. But for Jess, it had felt like everything. His last desperate chance to make things right with Rory. He knew she would say no. Rory was too practical to even think about doing something like that. But for a moment he had been so scared of losing her that he let himself think she would say yes.

He knew there was probably no coming back from what had happened, but he made a vow to himself once he got in his car. _I'm going to make this up to her someday,_ he told himself. Maybe she genuinely didn't want to be with him, but somehow he was going to make things right. He couldn't let this be their end.


	9. Jess 2

Previously posted as "Listen to the Dark". I figured my short ones would be better served as part of the compilation.

* * *

It was quiet. It was always quiet at night. Even at 11 on a Wednesday night, the only sound in little apartment was the leaky faucet in the bathroom dripping steadily. Some nights the TV was on or there were phone conversations going on, but some nights Liz didn't come home until Jess had been asleep for hours. She would still be sleeping when he left for school the morning. Sometimes she fell asleep right on the living room couch, still wearing her clothes from the day before even though they smelled like gross smoke. Those days were okay. When that happened Liz was just getting ready to start her day when Jess got home from school, so she was actually around to make him dinner or ask him about school before she went out again.

Theoretically she had a job, doing temp work for an agency that didn't care about what she did in her time outside of work. She didn't seem to go to work much, though. Instead, she went out with her friends a lot. They lived down the street from a bar that they all liked. Liz had said before that it was so close to their apartment that she could be home in just a couple of minutes if anything ever went wrong. The phone number for the bar was posted on the fridge, but Jess had never bothered to call. He could figure out things for himself.

He was only 11, but he had gotten pretty good at being alone. After school he might go to the park to read or hang out for a while, and then he would come home and do his homework. He always did his homework, and he got pretty good grades even though he had no one to check it for him. He didn't really like school, but he knew that people who went to school got good jobs and made enough money to live in nice places. Jess liked the idea of moving to a nice place someday. An apartment by the park, maybe, where the plaster in the living room wasn't cracked and the window in his bedroom wasn't always stuck open a couple of inches. So he made sure to always do his homework.

Jess made himself dinner too. Using the stove wasn't hard. He didn't like reaching into the oven to pull things out when they were hot, but if he used the oven mitt that didn't have a hole it was okay. If Liz had forgotten to go shopping and there was nothing to cook, he would make a peanut butter sandwich. Sometimes if Liz had just gotten paid she left money for takeout. Jess liked Chinese the best, and the place on the next block always gave him a ton of food so it lasted a couple of days. Chinese nights were the nights Liz stayed out the latest. If she had gotten paid, that meant she had more money to spend with her friends.

After dinner Jess usually watched TV, but they didn't have cable and their VCR was broken so most of the time it was boring. He always ended up reading instead. Books were free because he could get them from the school library, or walk to the public library if it was a nice day. Sometimes he would pick out a book and the librarian would say he needed a note from his parents to check it out, so he would just put it under his jacket when no one was looking. He always made sure to put it right back on the shelf when he was done reading it, so no one knew that he had taken it in the first place. Those books were his favorite. They were so much more interesting than the boring chapter books his school librarian pushed on his classmates.

Jess tried to stay up and read as late as he could, always hoping that his mom would come home before he went to bed. When she did he could fall asleep to the sounds of her moving around in the living room or watching TV. When she didn't, that's when Jess would sneak Liz's radio out of her bedroom. If she noticed the days when it was missing, she didn't say anything. Jess didn't listen to the radio a lot normally, but on those nights he would turn on the local rock radio station and turn the volume up as high as he could without the neighbors hearing. At first it had been hard to fall asleep with such loud music playing, but after a while he became used to it. Even when a song he didn't like came on, it was better than the quiet. With the music playing, he could almost pretend that someone was there with him. When the radio was on, he didn't feel so alone.


	10. Rory, Logan and Jess

Previously posted as "Standing Firm as the Ground Shakes Beneath Me" which is a hell of a mouthful so it's probably for the best that it's hidden in this now instead.

* * *

"Rory Gilmore, will you marry me?"

"Logan, of course! Yes," she amended. "Definitely yes." The crowd chuckled, but Rory didn't even notice. It felt like her grandparents' party had shrunk down to just the two of them. As Logan slipped the beautiful ring on her finger, Rory felt like she was floating high above everything. After she admired the ring, she looked over at herm om and dad. They looked happy, but her mom looked like she was trying to hide sadness, too.

For a brief moment, Rory was sad too. Stars Hollow had always been her home. Even when she was away at school, she had her house to come back to in the summers. Now she would be leaving for good. No more Stars Hollow summers. She would be with Logan, her husband.

It wasn't until after the party that Logan told her why he had picked that particular moment to propose.

"You—I mean we—are moving to California?" Rory asked, feeling a little apprehensive. She wished he had told her before proposing. She didn't _think_ it would have changed her answer, but it would've been nice to know that Logan had accepted a job on the other side of the country. Now she was committed.

Logan nodded. "Soon," he said. "I'd like to be out there by the first of the month." Noticing her look of panic, he forged ahead. "I already found us a house that we can rent. It's a little two bedroom with a big backyard. It's got an avocado tree!"

"I do like guacamole," Rory said lamely, her head spinning. "Is that why you were out there so long? You were house hunting?" How could he have been so sure she would say yes to his proposal?

"Well, I talked to our real estate guy before I left so we'd have some options if the meetings went well and he found a place, so there was no real hunting involve," Logan said. "It just kind of fell in my lap. I didn't sign a lease or anything yet so we'll have to stay in a hotel for a week or so while all of that is processed, but then it's ours. To live in, at least."

"Wow. California." Rory didn't know anything about California. She wasn't sure she could actually picture herself living there. Of course, she wouldn't have much time to picture things before they actually left.

"Just a straight shot up the highway to all your San Francisco papers," Logan said easily. "It's perfect how it's all worked out."

"Perfect," Rory echoed, resting her head on his shoulder. All of a sudden she had a massive headache.

Rory's phone vibrated in the pocket of her graduation gown, but she had no choice but to ignore it. It felt like it was burning a hole in her pocket as she watched her classmates cross the stage. At long last her tassel was on the other side of her cap and she was sprung free. Since she family was lost in the throng of people, the first thing she did was pull out her phone. She didn't recognize the number that had called, but they had left a voicemail. Curiously, Rory dialed her voicemail. She hadn't been expecting a call from anyone, but she had one new message anyway.

"This is Pam Carlyle from the Philadelphia Inquirer," it began. "We were very impressed with your resume and to cut to the chase, we'd like to offer you a position as a copywriter. Don't worry about an interview or anything. I know this is hardly the usual protocol, but one of our writers left on terrible terms and we need to fill the position ay-sap. We're in a huge jam; I'll fill you in more in person. Call me back as soon as you can and we can work things out, okay? We've read your work and we'd love to have you on staff!"

Rory listened to the message two more times before her family caught up with her. Even though she was in total shock, she played it off well enough. She didn't want to tell her family about the job offer right away. They probably wouldn't even believe her. It sounded insane, after all. She hadn't even interviewed with the Inquirer and they were offering her a position? In what world did that happen?

There was also the fact that not even 24 hours ago she had accepted Logan's proposal, which meant moving to Palo Alto, clear across the country from Philadelphia. For a little while, she pushed the offer out of her head. She enjoyed dinner with her family and Logan and let them talk about her graduation party and her big move to California. She didn't chime in as much as usual, but nobody seemed to notice. Later that evening at her mom's house, though, she broke out her laptop.

The Inquirer wasn't as reputable as some of the papers she had applied to, but it was good. The more she researched, the bigger the knot in her stomach got. She wanted this job. A few weeks ago Rory had turned down a great job offer from the Providence Journal Bulletin, and after not getting the internship she had been holding out for she had learned how important sure things in life could be. Logan was a sure thing, but would she be able to find a job in San Francisco? It was a lot to gamble on.

But this job, this was real. The offer was sitting in her voicemail box, a sure thing. Then there was the ring on her finger, symbolizing another sure thing. What would happen to her and Logan if she took the job? How could they possibly be engaged when they were living in different time zones? She wanted it all, and that was simply impossible. She had accepted Logan's proposal already. The job offer had come in too late. Rory knew she should have called Logan to talk to him about the job, but her fingers pulled up another number instead.

"Jess?" she said once he picked up. "What's it like living in Philadelphia?"


	11. Rory and Jess 4

Previously posted as "The Easy Road Again". Why do all my drabbles end with Jess being wise and teaching Rory a lesson?

* * *

"So do these open?" Jess gestured toward the window.

Rory shrugged, feeling awkward hovering by her desk. She wasn't always the greatest at meeting new people, and Jess was kind of off-putting. "Yeah, you just have to unlatch them and push," she said. "Why?" Rory could smell Sookie's mac and cheese and was eager to join the rest of the group and have a big plateful, but she didn't necessarily want to leave Jess alone in her bedroom and he didn't seem that interesting in dinner.

"Great," he said. "Shall we?"

"Shall we what?" Rory asked.

"Bail." Jess said it like it should have been obvious, but Rory had never bailed on anything in her life. She had once convinced her mom she didn't have strep throat just so she wouldn't miss a spelling test at school. She could barely talk and was near delirious with a fever, but she had gotten a 99% on that test before she missed the next week of school.

Rory shook her head. "No."

"Why not?"

She scoffed. "It's a Tuesday night in Stars Hollow. There's nowhere to bail to. The 24-hour minimart just closed twenty minutes ago."

That didn't seem to deter Jess. "So we'll just walk around, then. Or sit on a bench and stare at our shoes."

Rory glanced down instinctively. She really had no interest in staring at her ratty gray Converse. "Look, Sookie just made a ton of really great food, and I'm starving and though it may not seem like it right at this moment, it's gonna be fun. Trust me."

"I don't even know you," Jess pointed out.

"Well, don't I look trustworthy?"

"Maybe," Jess said. "Do I?"

Rory looked him over. With the leather jacket, overly gelled hair and the slight smirk he had on his face, she didn't think he looked trustworthy at all. "Maybe," she echoed.

"At least we agree," Jess said, pushing open her bedroom window. He swung one leg out, hovering in the frame for a second. "Well, are you coming or not?"

Even if she said no, it was obvious that Jess wasn't hanging around. If Rory went out in the living room and told everybody that Jess had climbed out her window and disappeared, the party was going to be ruined. Luke would immediately leave to look for him, Sookie would bemoan all the time she had spent cooking and Lorelai would probably rant for a while about how ungrateful and irresponsible Jess was to leave a party that was being held for him. Glancing out her bedroom door, she noticed all the food was still on the kitchen table. "Give me a second," she said, an idea forming. Before she could change her mind she walked out and into the living room.

"Hey Mom, Jess and I are going to eat outside," Rory said. Lorelai nodded absently, already deep into a conversation with Sookie.

"Make sure you shut the back door so bugs don't get in," she said, not even looking up. She didn't seem too concerned about the guest of honor not even wanting to be in the house. Rory glanced at Luke before she walked back out, and he gave her a thumbs up. Rory returned the gesture, a little thrilled that everyone had believed her so easily. She wouldn't consider herself a liar, but she wasn't too bad at it.

Back in her room Jess was still sitting in the windowsill, kicking his heels against the wall. "Lying to mommy?"

"I just didn't want her to worry if I didn't follow her out there."

"How sweet," Jess said sardonically, hopping out the window. "She's got you on a nice little leash there, huh?"

Rory scowled, climbing out the window after him. "No. Don't make me regret following you out here."

"I won't," Jess said, looking around. "So where do we go from here?"

Rory pointed around the backside of their garage. "Go that way. I don't want them to see us if we walk near the living room."

"Well, aren't we paranoid," Jess said, though he followed her directions. "Do you really think they care that we're not in there?"

Jess hadn't been there for the party preparation, so he couldn't possibly know that Sookie had made four main courses just to make sure there would be something Jess liked. Lorelai had even gone out and picked up some Sprite in case Jess didn't like Coke, and Rory knew she hated Sprite. They had just wanted Jess to feel welcome in Stars Hollow and he had bailed at the first opportunity he saw. And so had she. "Yes, I think they would," Rory said, feeling a little guilty. Still, she was a little excited. Ever since she got into Chilton she felt like all she ever did was work. Even her summer had spent taking classes and trying to squeeze in volunteer work, much to Dean's dismay. It was nice to finally just take a little while and hang out with someone new. It wasn't like she was making any friends at Chilton. "You know, Sookie's going to send you and Luke home with a ton of leftovers. You better eat all of them."

"Yes, ma'am."

For a couple of minutes they walked in silence, heading toward the center of town. As Rory had predicted there weren't a lot of people around. Luke's was looking a little sad with all the lights off since he had closed early for the night. Nearly everything around Luke's was already closed, too. It wasn't particularly late but Stars Hollow pretty much shut down after the sun set. Rory thought about going and sitting in the gazebo, but decided against it since Doose's was still open. She wasn't sure if Dean was working tonight but she didn't want him to see her with Jess if he was. Not that there was anything wrong with her hanging out with Jess, but Dean had been kind of irritated lately that she didn't have as much time to hang out with him as usual.

"You took me pretty seriously when I said we could just walk around, huh?" Jess asked as they rounded the corner at Luke's. "I didn't actually mean we just had to walk around forever."

"It's been fifteen minutes," Rory said. "And for the record, I actually had a destination in mind. You're new here. You don't even know where we're going." It wasn't long before Jess found out though. Despite the fact that Rory logically knew that Jess could murder her and dump her body in the lake, Rory had lead him to the little just past Luke's. Even though the town was constantly trying to raise money to repair it and make it a grand spectacle, it didn't even have guard rails. It was little and maybe not entirely safe, but Rory had always liked it there. At nine on a Tuesday night nobody would bother them there.

Jess nearly crashed into her when she stopped abruptly on the middle of the bridge. "This is it?" he asked. When Rory nodded he promptly sat down, his legs dangling over the side. "Cool place. I was starting to think places like that didn't exist in Stars Hollow."

"Hey, we might not be New York but we're plenty cool," Rory argued, sitting down beside him. When she had first met Dean she felt awkward and stupid around him all the time, but sitting here with Jess felt comfortable. Maybe she would actually have a new friend. "I'm sure your hangout in New York was way cooler, though."

Jess snorted. "My hangout? I didn't have a hangout. No one has hangouts anymore. I went to Washington Square Park a lot, though. It's a pretty cool place. There are a lot less preppy stoners than Central Park, anyway."

"That's where David Lee Roth got busted, right?" Rory asked. Rory's dad loved Van Halen and her mom always teased him about how they weren't even cool enough to score cheap weed.

"I'm surprised you know that," Jess said. "I can't picture you as a Van Halen fan."

"I'm not," she admitted. "But I've heard my mom mention them a time or two. I'm more of an N'Sync kind of girl."

Jess studied her for a moment, then shrugged. "I can't tell if you're kidding or not. I could believe it, but it also seems like you're messing with me."

"I can't believe you would think that I would actually listen to N'Sync," Rory said, feigning hurt. "It's like you don't know me at all."

"I don't know you," Jess pointed out. "I know you like to read and you're scared of disappointing your mom and you don't like Van Halen or N'Sync, but that's about it."

"Wait a second, I am not scared of disappointing my mom," she argued.

"Uh huh. So that's why you had to check with her before you snuck out, right?"

"I didn't check with her! I just don't sneak out much."

Jess snorted. "Please, I watched you climb out that window. You've never snuck out in your life, have you?"

Rory picked up a rock and tossed it in the lake, watching the ripples expand. The water looked glassy in the moonlight. "So what if I haven't? I bet you do it all the time, right? Mr. Cool Guy."

"It's not sneaking out if no one cares if you leave."

"I'm sure Luke would care if he found out you left," Rory said.

Jess shrugged. "I doubt it. He's probably annoyed that I'm here at all. He's acting like he's not, but it's totally fake. He's trying too hard to act like he's cool with it."

"He's not annoyed," Rory said. "And he would care if he knew that you left. I've known Luke for a long time. He's a really good guy. He might not act like it, but he does care about people a lot. He wouldn't have offered to let you move in if he didn't really want you too." Rory really wanted to know why exactly Jess was here, but she couldn't bring herself to ask. It wasn't any of her business and truthfully, she was a little scared of what the answer might be. Jess was about as different as possible from anyone she knew. Dean worked in a grocery store and played on a softball league and helped his little sister with her homework, and Jess snuck out and hung out in parks in New York City and got sent to live with a relative he barely knew.

Jess shrugged again. Rory was already noticing that he did that a lot. "Whatever. I'll be eighteen in less than a year anyway and then I can get out of here."

"What about school?" Rory asked. Lorelai had mentioned that Jess was a junior too, so even though he would be eighteen soon he still had two years of school left.

"What about it?" Jess said. Rory winced. Her whole life had been about school and she was more excited about going to Harvard than she had been about anything else. She couldn't imagine having such a cavalier attitude about it. "Oh, don't look at me like that," Jess said, noticing her flinch. "School isn't everything. You can learn without being trapped in some building."

That made Rory feel a little bit better. "It's pretty important though. Don't you want to graduate and go to college? You can do anything you want in college."

"I can do anything I want when I'm eighteen," Jess countered. "I don't need to waste thousands of dollars a year at some other school. Maybe I'll just travel, instead."

"My mom and I are going backpacking in Europe after I graduate," Rory said. "We're going to spend the whole summer just seeing everything we can. We've been planning it for years."

"Well there you go," Jess said. "Maybe I'll do that."

"You would go backpacking alone?" Rory couldn't imagine going on vacation by herself. It would be incredibly lonely.

"Hey, I'm used to doing things by myself," Jess said. "It's no big deal. What's the worst that could happen?"

"You could get murdered," she pointed out. "You could get mugged and you could get murdered and pushed into a canal in Venice."

"So I won't go to Venice then," Jess said. "Little boats aren't for me, anyway. And I could get murdered and pushed into this lake right now, but I'm here anyway."

Rory frowned at him. "Why are you assuming that I would murder you? Maybe you would murder me. You could pull a knife on me at any second."

Jess patted his pockets. "No knives," he said. "Do I really look like the kind of guy who would carry a knife around?"

When she had seen him for the first time earlier Rory might have said yes. When he sort of introduced himself Jess had seemed like he was made entirely of hard edges. But now Rory wasn't sure what kind of guy Jess really was. He seemed like he could be any kind of guy. "Maybe," she said. "I honestly can't tell."

He turned and looked her in the eye, which Rory found to be a little unsettling. No one had ever looked at her in such an appraising way before. Rory counted to six before she blinked and looked away. It wasn't until she did that Jess spoke up. "I can't tell about you, either."

"Oh, please. You probably thought you had me pegged the minute you saw me."

"I thought I did," Jess said. "I know you don't sneak out without telling your mom and you care about other people's feelings. I'm guessing you probably study hard and get good grades, because you look like the type of person who gets good grades. Judging by the uniform sitting on your dresser I'm also guessing you go to some fancy private school, which means you'll probably go to a fancy college too. You read a lot of books, but none of them are stupid teen books with pink covers so you're probably interested in a challenge. You were working on something when I walked into your room and you were typing really quickly, so I'm guessing you're a good writer or you're really anal about planning things out before you start them. Probably both. Because of all that, I'm guessing you have a boyfriend, probably someone who plays football or something at that fancy school of yours." He paused and looked at her. "But I don't know if any of that's true. I can guess all I want, but I'm willing to concede that I don't know the kind of person you are at all."

Rory was uncomfortable with how much of that had been right. He had said just a few minutes ago that he didn't know her, but his guess had pretty much been dead on. Was she really that predictable? She didn't want to be. She was comfortable with who she was, but she didn't necessarily want everyone else to know who she was just by looking at her. "My boyfriend doesn't go to my school," she said lamely. "And he doesn't play football. Just softball."

Jess nodded. "But you do have a boyfriend."

"Yeah, his name is Dean," she said. Jess didn't really seem interested in the fact that he had been right about everything else. He didn't say anything, just stood up and offered her his hand.

"We should get back, right?" Rory nodded, taking his hand. He held on just a second longer than necessary, his thumb brushing the back of her hand as she let go. "You wouldn't want to get in trouble. It would probably be the first time, right?"

"Oh, I've been in trouble before," Rory said, thinking of the dance last year where she had accidentally stayed out with Dean all night. It had blown over pretty quickly, but she had never seen her mom so mad at her before. "See? You don't know everything about me."

"No, I guess I don't," Jess said. He was quiet the whole way back to the house, mostly staring straight ahead or down at his shoes the whole time. Rory wondered if she had said the wrong thing, but they hadn't even really talked that much. She wasn't sure what she could have said to irritate him. If anything, she was the one who should have been allowed to be irritated. She had barely told Jess anything about her life and yet he had practically guessed everything. He was the new mysterious guy, and she was still plain old predictable Rory. She wasn't out to shock people, but she wanted to be the kind of person people actually wanted to get to know. She wanted to know more about Jess, but had figured her out right away. He had no reason to try to get to know her more. He had just met her an hour ago and he already knew all he needed to know.

Back at her house nothing had changed from when they left. As she walked up the back porch she could hear her mom and Sookie laughing in the living room. If anyone had gone back in the kitchen for more food they obviously hadn't looked outside to check on her and Jess. And why would they? Lorelai trusted Rory completely, and aside from the whole dance mix-up she had never given her mom a reason not to.

"Are you coming back inside?" Rory asked, her hand on the doorknob. She could smell the food even from the porch and she was looking forward to finally eating dinner. Her stomach growled at the thought of food. "You must be starving."

"Nah, I'm good," Jess said. "I think I'm going to stay out here for a while. It seems loud in there, you know?"

"Sure," Rory said, even though hanging out with everyone sounded nice to her. "Do you want me to tell Luke you're still out here?"

"He'll figure it out," Jess said, leaning against the railing. "Really, don't worry about it. Go have fun."

Rory nodded and headed back in the house. But even after she settled down in the living room with her food, she was still thinking of Jess sitting out on the back porch. She thought about checking on him when she went out to get a drink, but she decided against it. He had obviously had enough socializing for the day already. No one in the living room seemed particularly bothered that Jess wasn't there with him. Even though they had planned all this for him, they had obviously accepted that he didn't want to be a part of it. For some reason that made Rory kind of sad, and she didn't really know why. It felt a little bit like they had already given up.

It was nearing eleven when everyone got ready to go home. Rory had offered to help Sookie pack up her dishes, but she had waved her off. Another night Rory might have insisted, but she was happy to go in her room and just reflect on the night. She was still kind of in a funk that Jess had figured her out so easily, even if he had said he didn't. The fact that she was even annoyed at all irritated her further, because up until tonight she had felt great with how things were going for her. She did everything she was supposed to do, and it had been working out great for her. She had good grades, a great relationship with her mom and an attractive boyfriend that treated her like a princess. Until then, it had been everything she wanted. Now she wasn't exactly sure what she wanted. She was still happy with everything she had, but she wanted something more.

Pulling back her blankets to get in bed, she noticed a piece of paper sticking out from under her pillow. The handwriting was unfamiliar, but she knew who it was from even before she looked for a signature. Who else would have climbed back in her open bedroom window to leave her a note?

 _Don't wait until college to be who you want to be_. _Do whatever you want. Keep people guessing._

He hadn't signed the note, but Rory was sure it was from Jess. She slipped the note back under her pillow, wondering when she would see him again. She didn't know what she wanted to do, but maybe Jess would help her figure it out.


	12. Lorelai, Rory and Emily

This one is... special and includes the words rhinestone penis.

* * *

A tense silence hung over the dining room table, which could only mean one thing. It was Friday night.

The three women sitting around the table kept their focus on their own plates. Every so often, though, Emily felt compelled to glare at her daughter across the table. It was hard to ignore the elephant in the room.

Or rather, the rhinestone penis in the room.

Every time Emily stared daggers at Lorelai, she just shrugged like she had done nothing wrong. As far as Lorelaii was concerned, she had done her job. It was Friday night and she was having dinner at her parents, even though the nice buffer that was her father was gone for the evening, no doubt having a much more pleasant dinner in whatever city he was doing business in that week.

Rory knew in situations like this she was supposed to be her mom's buffer, but she had spent the evening staring at her chicken piccata. Instead of acknowledging the tension between her mom and grandma she tried to hide some of the capers that dotted her dinner. She had done her part at home, trying to convince her mom not to wear a t-shirt adorned with male genitalia. Look where that had gotten her.

After more than twelve minutes of the only sounds being forks scraping against plates, a faint beeping came from outside. Lorelai ignored it at first, but the sound kept getting closer to the house. "I think someone's in the driveway, Mom," Lorelai said. "You want me to send the guard dogs after them?"

"No, it's just the tow truck," Emily said, as if that was a common occurrence.

"Is something wrong with your car, Grandma?" Rory asked, glad to finally have something to talk about.

Emily neatly sliced a roasted potato and chewed slowly. "No, it's for your mother's car," she said.

"You cannot tow my car, Mother," Lorelai said, pacing back and forth in front of the living room windows. The tow truck driver had already told her that since her car was on private property, she had no say in whether or not it got towed. Lorelai was certain Emily had slipped him some extra money.

"You heard the driver, Lorelai. It's my property and I can do as I wish. And since you were willing to disrespect me in my home, I thought that a punishment should be in order." She took a sip of wine, looking completely relaxed on the couch.

Lorelai sighed. "I wasn't trying to disrespect you. It's laundry day."

Emily eyed Rory's dress. "Rory looks perfectly lovely," she said. "Are you saying you couldn't scrape together anything besides that horrible shirt?"

"Rory wears a uniform for five-sevenths of her week," Lorelai pointed out. "And though you may find it hard to believe, I do dress up for work every day."

Emily sniffed. "I'm sure you do. I'm also sure you could have borrowed something appropriate from Rory."

"I tried to keep my coat on," Lorelai said. "If you had let me keep my coat on you never would have known."

"It's not proper to keep your coat on indoors."

"It's not _proper_ to have your guest's car towed when you disagree with their clothing!"

"I miss Grandpa," Rory said to no one in particular. Neither Emily nor Lorelai noticed.

"You do realize that without my car I can't get home and then you'll have to look at my shirt all night, right?" Lorelai asked, walking over to the bar to pour herself a martini. When she saw the look Emily was giving her, she added a little extra to her glass. "What? It's not like I'm driving."

"For heaven's sake, Lorelai. I'm not holding you prisoner. You can take a cab." Emily said it with the air of someone who had never had to pay for a 30 mile cab ride. Not that it would have made much difference to her.

Lorelai threw up her hands in frustration. "Yes, because I brought $100 cash to dinner tonight. I don't have the money to pay for a cab, Mother."

"Well, that's not my fault," Emily said. She produced a gardening magazine from out of nowhere and began to flip through the pages.

Lorelai said down directly across from her, drawing her shoulders back to make her shirt as prominent as possible. "So, this is going to be the rest of our evening then," she said.

"I guess so," Emily said, not even looking up from her magazine. Lorelai twisted in her seat a little, wondering if she could somehow catch the light with the rhinestones on her shirt and direct it toward Emily. "Lorelai, do you need to use the bathroom?"

"No, I'm not leaving you alone again," Lorelai said. "You might decide to call and have the Jeep compacted if I leave the room. When did you call them, anyway?"

"When I went to check on the first course."

Of course. Lorelai should have known something was up when Emily had willingly left the room to check on the maid. "Well played," she said begrudgingly.

Emily looked startled at receiving even a small amount of approval from Lorelai. "Where did you get such a heinous shirt anyway?" she asked.

"It was a gag gift from Sookie when I was engaged to Max," Lorelai said. "She gave it to me after my bachelorette party. You were there," she reminded her mom.

"Yes, I remember," Emily said. Her frosty tone had softened. "Places like that aren't usually my taste, but that was a lovely night."

Now it was Lorelai's turn to look stunned. She had assumed her mother had immediately erased the drag club from her memory. "Thanks, Mom," she said, touched.

"I had the truck drive move your car around the corner," Emily confessed. Lorelai might have thought so, but she wasn't cruel enough to actually prevent her daughter and granddaughter from getting home. "You can go, if you'd like. It's getting late."

For a second, Lorelai hesitated. It was rare that Friday night dinners that started with a fight ended on a good note. She wanted to say something to preserve the pleasant atmosphere until next week. She was about to compliment the dinner when Emily spoke up again. "And if I ever see you in clothing with a penis on it again, I'm going to do a lot more than have your car towed."

Ten miles outside of Hartford, the Jeep was silent except for the radio playing. Rory and Lorelai both stared straight ahead, trying to process exactly what had just happened at dinner.

"My mother said penis," Lorelai said, finally breaking the silence halfway home.

"Yep," Rory agreed. She wasn't sure she would be able to look at her grandma the same way again next Friday.

"I feel dirty.

"Yep."

Lorelai flipped on her blinker and pulled off the highway at the next exit. "I need a coffee," she announced.

Rory nodded. "A double espresso with a shot of bleach."


End file.
